Foresters Financial Surprises John T. White Elementary with the Gift of Supplies

John T. White Elementary was the beneficiary of a good deed by Foresters Financial of Fort Worth. The local office recently applied for, and received, a $2,500 Foresters Financial grant it used to benefit the east side school.

“We are regularly inside Fort Worth schools because of the services we offer, and while visiting John T. White I saw a need for basic school supplies to support their teachers,” said Ted Gautier, a Foresters financial services representative. “The grant we received went directly toward the purchase of supplies and colorful containers for all the teachers. We assembled almost a dozen Foresters volunteers who came to the school, filled the containers with the supplies and surprised the teachers with the unexpected delivery.”

“This gift was totally unexpected, but greatly appreciated, because as any elementary school will tell you, supplies are always needed,” said Principal Tamera Dugan. “Our teachers were very excited to receive the gift of pencils, hand sanitizer, Kleenex, pens, composition books and folders. We are very thankful to Forrester Financial and their act of kindness to support our teachers and students.”

Meadowbrook Elementary Gets Rowdy

Rowdy, the official mascot of the National Football League’s Dallas Cowboys since 1996, paid a surprise visit to the east side when he dropped by Meadowbrook Elementary to get the students fired up for the upcoming STAAR tests. Rowdy and his Dallas Cowboys handler hosted a pep rally in the school’s gym packed with students and teachers. Because Rowdy doesn’t talk, he relies instead on actions and help from others to drive home his messages. During the rally he focused on such sage advice as: get a good night’s sleep so you are mentally and physically ready; eat a healthy meal so you have energy; take a deep breath and relax your mind and body; and get rid of any fear and focus on being positive. He even coerced a teacher and student to take center stage for a dance off to win a Dallas Cowboys Rally Towel, much to the delight of the enthusiastic crowd.

Fort Worth ISD Eastside Schools HBCU College Fair

The Fort Worth ISD Eastside Alliance Community Partnership and the Historic Stop Six Initiative sponsored a Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) College Fair on Friday, April 15, hosted at the Potter’s House Fort Worth Youth Facility.

The College Fair was aimed at Fort Worth ISD middle and high schools on the eastside of the city, including Dunbar and Eastern Hills high schools, as well as Handley, Jacquet, McClung and Meadowbrook Middle Schools.

At the fair students were able to talk to both college recruiters and actual graduates of 21 HBCUs who were represented. In fact, many of the HBCU alumni who were present at the fair to represent their colleges were also graduates of FWISD schools and were excited to take the day to give back and share their collegiate experiences with the students. The United Negro College Fund was also on hand at the fair to give students information about scholarship opportunities and statistics on how earning a college degree can change your life.

Superintendent Kent Scribner as well as FWISD Board Trustees Christine Moss and Tobi Jackson stopped by to show their support and excitement for the students learning about these unique institutions for higher learning. By the end of the day more than 200 students were able to learn about the significance of HBCUs and receive information to inspire them to start working on their college dream today.

Participating schools at the HBCU College Fair were:

• Alcorn University

• Clark Atlanta University

• Dillard University

• Fisk University

• Grambling University

• Huston-Tillotson University

• Jarvis Christian College

• Miles College

• Morehouse College

• Philander Smith College

• Prairie View A&M University

• Spelman College

• Tennessee State University

• Texas Southern University

• Tougaloo College

• Tuskegee University

• University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff

• Wilberforce University

• Wiley College

• Xavier University of Louisiana

Christian Cottage PrepScience Fair Winners

Congratulations to Blaine McCoy - 1st in ASQ (overall quality control) and 3rd in the plants science division at the 65th FWRSF (Fort Worth Regional Science Fair). Blaine will be competing at the State of Texas Science Fair!

The Texas School Counselor Association has recognized Eastern Hills High School with its prestigious CREST Award for Counseling Excellence for 2015. CREST, which stands for Counselors Reinforcing Excellence for Students in Texas, was created in 2005 to recognize schools who have demonstrated a commitment using the school guidance and counseling program to improve the lives and achievement of students in academic, career, and personal social domains. This year only 56 schools in the state were recognized with this award.

“Our counselors play a crucial role in the academic, personal, social, and career development of students, and we are extremely proud that their efforts are being recognized with this prestigious award by the state professional counseling association,” said Principal Chad McCarty.

CREST is a continuous improvement document that gives a school counseling program an opportunity to demonstrate effective communication and a commitment to getting results.

CREST helps counselors to evaluate their counseling programs, promote their programs to the stakeholders in their districts, demonstrate the effectiveness of their guidance and counseling programs through empirical means, and to implement the Texas and National models for School Counseling Programs.

CREST looks at the counseling program in seven key areas: Principal’s Support, School Counseling Advisory Council, School Climate and Safety, Student Results, Major Achievements, Community Partnerships and Resources, and Parent Collaboration.

The guidance support team prepares a document that highlights these areas and communicates just what the counseling program is doing to help students succeed. These documents are sent to reviewers throughout the state of Texas to be judged according to pre-set standards of excellence.

Fort Worth, TX – Ana Gomez received a Keep America Beautiful Youth Recognition Award at the annual Keep America Beautiful National Awards program, which took place during the recent 2016 Keep America Beautiful National Conference in Orlando, Florida. Ana Gomez was nominated by her Polytechnic High School teacher Jamie Cox.

Ana Gomez distinguished herself for her outstanding community work at Polytechnic High School. Established in 1953, Keep America Beautiful consists of a national network of more than 600 community-based affiliates whose programs, initiatives and efforts, supported by millions of volunteers, help transform public spaces into beautiful places.

Ana, a junior at Polytechnic High School, has been working hard to keep Fort Worth beautiful since she joined her school’s Environmental Club as a freshman. She is in the Engineering Program of Choice program at Poly, which has a unit on Environmental Engineering. Ana totally embraced the unit when it was covered, and her concern for the environment increased immensely. Although new to campus, she immediately embraced the importance of reducing litter and “reducing, reusing, and recycling”. Her first litter cleanup experience for the community was the fall Trinity River Water District (TRWD) Trash Bash in 2013. She loved the opportunity to volunteer in her community, and it led her to volunteer for more cleanup activities in the Fort Worth Area. These include the Cowtown Great American Cleanup, additional TRWD Fall and Spring Trash Bashes, Poly Environmental Club’s Weekly Trash Bash on campus, and cleaning Sycamore Park through her schools monthly Adopt a Park cleanup program.

“Ana has been attending Keep Fort Worth Beautiful board meetings since last summer as well as participating on periodic calls with Keep America Beautiful and is enthusiastically working to make her high school a litter free campus. It is exciting to watch!” said Debbie Branch of Keep Fort Worth Beautiful.

The Keep America Beautiful Youth Recognition Awards are open to individuals, youth groups or schools for program activities taking place in the past year.

“Keep America Beautiful’s National Awards celebrates some of our country’s most dedicated community leaders – representatives from our affiliates and partner organizations – who personify the words imagine, inspire and transform through the work they help lead every day to keep America beautiful in local communities nationwide,” said Keep America

Beautiful President and CEO, Jennifer Jehn. “It’s my privilege to honor Ana Gomez and celebrate her dedication to making their community become more socially connected, environmentally healthy and economically sound through the Keep Fort Worth Beautiful program.”

Keep America Beautiful’s National Conference, its premier educational and networking event, brought together more than 350 leaders from Keep America Beautiful’s national network of more than 600 state and community-based affiliates, business leaders, policymakers and other experts who shared innovative ideas and proven strategies to help end littering, improve recycling, and beautify America’s communities.

About Keep Fort Worth Beautiful

The mission of Keep Fort Worth Beautiful (KFWB) is to educate and engage Fort Worth residents and businesses to take responsibility for improving their community environment. KFWB programs include backyard composting classes, America Recycles Day (formally known as Shred Day) and the Fort Worth Earth Party. The signature event of Keep Fort Worth Beautiful is the Cowtown Great American Cleanup – now in its 31st year. In addition KFWB will also provide litter cleanup supplies to any community group conducting a cleanup at any time throughout the year. To learn more visit the webpage at www.fortworthtexas.gov/KFWB. Follow us on Twitter or Facebook.

About Keep America Beautiful

At Keep America Beautiful, we want to ensure that beauty is our lasting signature. A leading national nonprofit, Keep America Beautiful inspires and educates people to take action every day to improve and beautify their community environment. We envision a country where every community is a clean, green, and beautiful place to live. Established in 1953, Keep America Beautiful provides the expertise, programs and resources to help people end littering in America, improve recycling in America, and beautify America’s communities. The organization is driven by the work and passion of more than 600 community-based Keep America Beautiful affiliates, millions of volunteers, and the support of corporate partners, municipalities, elected officials, and individuals. To learn how you can donate or take action, visit kab.org. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram, like us on Facebook, or view us on YouTube.

Nolan Catholic High School Partners with Perot Museum to host FIRST lego league Robotics Challenge

Nolan Catholic High School hosted a very fun and exciting event recently. It was the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), Lego League robotics competition for middle schoolers. The competition was open to public, private, and home-schooled students, as well as clubs or groups who want to participate.

Nolan partnered with the Perot Museum to host the Fort Worth area competition. The Nolan robotics team, the Robo Vikes, do a lot of community outreach with area middle schools, and this was a great way to increase visibility and exposure to science and math for kids in the community.

About 30 teams competed and it was live streamed from the Nolan website.